FIXATION #01
Catherine D’avril

Fixation #01 is a performance that will take place in the public sphere, more precisely in the different public transportation systems of Berlin. Since I only have a minimal knowledge of German, I plan to engage in a visual dialogue with strangers. Through my sustained stare, I will do more than observe the Other; I will analyze how the passenger acts in my presence, which will certainly ignite many different reactions, such as discomfort, anger or seduction.

Fixation #01 is a stealthy act that infiltrates the notion of intimacy with the Other. I want to destabilize by doing a simple action in a place where stares avoid one another, where a trivial crossing of eyes can create a plethora of reactions. I therefore propose a performance that interferes in the urban landscapes through a subtle game that defies social norms and behavioral codes.

THIS PERFORMANCE PROJECT RUNS FOR THREE WEEKS FROM MAY 2ND-22ND AND WITH AN EXHIBITION OPENING ON MAY 30TH

TIME: From May 2-22nd anytime during the day / opening on May 30th at 19:00ENTRANCE: freeWHERE: From 2-22nd May at Kottbusser Tor and Maybachufer / opening on May 30th at João Cocteau | Kienitzerstr. 98, 12049 | joaococteau.com Photo Credit: Nuno Vicente

WATER
With Nuno Vicente curated by Kordula Fritze-Srbic

During the first three weeks of the Month of Performance Art –Berlin artist Nuno Vicente (Portugal/Berlin) will take a picture of himself at the photo automat machine at Kottbusser Tor and go to the Maybachufer washing the created image in the water, day after day at dawn. All photographs will be collected in a bucket, adding everyday a new manifestation of the same face.

“Washing with Water” explores the definition of performance and investigates the boarder between the personal space and the public sphere per placing intimate ritualistic actions into the vivid public life, blending the audience of chance with the audience of the performance itself. On May 30th the experiences, ideas, encounters, traces and conversations that arise during the performance will be transformed into an exhibition, opening at João Cocteau, Kienitzerstr. 98, 7pm.

Dagmar’s synthesis of momentary investment of body and movement as object and the presupposed idea result into an action using the connection of paper, paint and the body, like a traveller accompanied by gravitational signs. Natalie and Seven of Eglise (Dagmar) occupy the space in the presence of frequencies of the Sideral Moon performed by Eru (Alexander) and reflecting the earth-star constellations of the past, which no longer exist.

The imagined reoccurrence is tattooed on Nathalie´s body as a referral and signs of her own past history of post-colonial familiar narratives and the return home by castrating identity towards a multiple cultural narrative about a place in the world and how we act in it. The body, the paper and the paint become extensions of the artists’ skin, which are surgically laid out and formed anew. Marks and words are imprinted, which may involve public participants in creating marks.

TIME: VariableENTRANCE: DifficultWHERE: Around Berlin – you can call to book or we will invade your artisan coffee house and vintage clothes store
Image credit: Helen Scarlett O’Neill

BALLAD OF SKINNY LATTES AND VINTAGE CLOTHING IN THE SURREALIST TAXI
Fruit for the Apocalypse & Neo Futurist Collective

The Surrealist Taxi returns to MPA-B with a performing passenger! “The Ballad of Skinny Lattes and Vintage Clothing” is a solo performance installation, accompanied by a driver, navigator and occasional passengers. Its subject is globalisation and the effect on our high streets. “The Manifesto of the Revolutionary Middle Classes” will serve as our central theme as we take an aleatoric journey through Berlin chronicling the rise of the middle classes as they invade the city with fair-trade coffee and chi-chi retro clothes. The performance will take place in the Surrealist Taxi – which will also be available for booking if we choose to answer the phone.